Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Find a strategic partner to accelerate growth. Trying to save money by recruiting family members, or hiring only interns, is a bad risk. Great team members may take more time to find, and cost you stock options, but a qualified and highly motivated team that stretches your budget is a good calculated risk.

Forecast 304

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2014

Find a strategic partner to accelerate growth. Trying to save money by recruiting family members, or hiring only interns, is a bad risk. Great team members may take more time to find, and cost you stock options, but a qualified and highly motivated team that stretches your budget is a good calculated risk.

Startup 283

Startup Forecast Stock Options Technical Review 283

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

o Early on they hired 3 people from ACT software at once (more team hiring) on staff and supplement it with Agency (in LA worked with First Communications – good). Called Tim Spicer (c-companies partner) and he told him matt, they only want one thing, more warrant coverage!!! Mark: 10% warrant coverage is like stock options.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

The rest can come from early hires (with stock options to assure commitment), equity investors, or even strategic partners. I’m not suggesting that you need all six of these as cofounders initially, but I always recommend a minimum of two founders with different perspectives.

Technical Cofounder 245

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 245

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2023

Every startup should have at least a couple of outside advisors who are not major investors or family members, anxious to talk to new investors and key new hires. Calculate employee stock option values and vesting times, as well as salary. Any outside advisors or board members available for discussion?

Sweat Equity 207

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 207

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2018

Find a strategic partner to accelerate growth. Trying to save money by recruiting family members, or hiring only interns, is a bad risk. Great team members may take more time to find, and cost you stock options, but a qualified and highly motivated team that stretches your budget is a good calculated risk.

Forecast 161

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 161

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

He gives a wealth of practical advice on building a successful technical startup, including some specifics that I like on what constitutes a dream team of partners: The technical guru. The rest can come from early hires (with stock options to assure commitment), equity investors, or even strategic partners.

Technical Cofounder 144

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 144

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2016

The most effective and productive team members are positive, driven and want to be measured by results rather than hear work hours, perks or stock options. Teamwork inside the company and interacting with customers and partners outside the company are mandatory activities. Motivation and commitment to results.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Stock Options Salary Hiring 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2016

Every startup should have at least a couple of outside advisors who are not major investors or family members, anxious to talk to new investors and key new hires. Calculate employee stock option values and vesting times, as well as salary. Any outside advisors or board members available for discussion?

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2015

Every startup should have at least a couple of outside advisors who are not major investors or family members, anxious to talk to new investors and key new hires. Calculate employee stock option values and vesting times, as well as salary. Any outside advisors or board members available for discussion?

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

For a well-funded seed company I have controversially recommended hiring a great office manager that doubles as an administrative assistant. This happens because many CEOs are passionate, market-driven people who are constantly trying to launch new products, win contracts, get press, hire staff and woo VCs. HR & Legal.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Find a strategic partner to accelerate growth. Trying to save money by recruiting family members, or hiring only interns, is a bad risk. Great team members may take more time to find, and cost you stock options, but a qualified and highly motivated team that stretches your budget is a good calculated risk.

Startup 120

Startup Forecast Stock Options Technical Review 120

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

Picking the right attorney in your startup is as important as picking the right business partner. My business partner and I made many mistakes in our first tech startup, and so many of them were the result of choosing a lawyer who was a terrible fit. My business partner and I were elated. Our attorney should have known.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

The rest can come from early hires (with stock options to assure commitment), equity investors, or even strategic partners. I’m not suggesting that you need all six of these as cofounders initially, but I always recommend a minimum of two founders with different perspectives.

Technical Cofounder 120

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 120

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Stock Option. If you are more of a technical person and not a business leader by nature, make sure your investor knows that you intend to hire a CEO to take your place as soon as reasonably possible. Management Resumes and Organizational Chart. Customer References. Personal References. But don’t ask for a non-disclosure.

Angel Investor 159

Angel Investor Technical Review Software Review Accredited Investor 159

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

That’s where a good partner agreement comes into play. Not only do you want to allocate ownership, but you want to re-allocate ownership if either partner fails to deliver. I was originally hired as a contractor, developing a SaaS app from scratch, including DB design and coding. 65k when the industry standard is 120k.

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

www.thedailymuse.com

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

We’re Hiring. What Start-ups Should Know About Hiring a Lawyer. Hiring and working with a lawyer is often confusing and daunting, especially if you’ve never done it before. What should new entrepreneurs look for when hiring a lawyer? Hiring employees. Get Involved. Meet the Team. Job Search. Break Room.

Hiring 56

Hiring LLC Intellectual Property Private Equity 56

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

If you’re giving a large percentage of your company to someone (and yes, two percent is large), you’re entering into a contract that’s really a whole lot like marriage in that it creates a long-term relationship between you and the employee or partner. Make sure you understand all of your options before making any decisions.

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

www.joelonsoftware.com

MARCH 24, 2010

When we decide to hire someone, the interviewers who were involved in the "hire" decision will sit down with the candidates resume and salary history and figure out what level they will start at. Teamwork skills are excellent at the project, company, and industry-partner levels. Its neat and egalitarian. Educational adjustments.

Software Review 48

Software Review Stock Options Salary Technical Review 48

www.drowningamerican.com

JUNE 22, 2012

Next → How we Hire for Sweat Equity (Part 2)… Posted on April 7, 2011 by Travis Biziorek. The first time we hired partners for Kibin was way back in late 2009. I’ve heard people say it’s impossible to hire good developers right now. I want to hire before I have the ability to pay anyone.

Sweat Equity 40

Sweat Equity Equity Hiring Technical Review 40

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

It was a stock option incentive related “expense” but I bet you didn’t know that because in an era where we only read the headlines — they must be a train wreck losing billions. If you don’t have a strong balance sheet and can’t hire more people that’s fine — but understand this may lead to slower growth. Two-f **g-billion!

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

Ben's Blog

APRIL 28, 2010

When my partner Marc wrote his post describing our firm , the most controversial component of our investment strategy was our preference for founding CEOs. Salmon points out that “not a single one of the 12 [candidates] is a CEO who was hired to run a company by its board of directors.”. If you do, hire him!

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 78

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2012

Stock options, if you get them, won’t help you pay the mortgage for a least a couple of years, and the value then is totally unpredictable. One family partner works for a startup, and the other sticks with a large enterprise company like Intel, HP, Apple, IBM, or Fujitsu. Start networking. The hours are long and unpredictable.

Silicon Valley 246

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Startup Stock Options 246

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Then along comes either money or contracts from strategic or financial investors or partners. Compensation’s charter is to approve stock option grants for any employee, no matter how small the grant, and all salary and benefits for at least the CEO if not the next level down, to avoid conflict of interest with the CEO.

Covenant 59

Covenant Software Review Stock Options Vesting 59

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2011

Stock options, if you get them, won’t help you pay the mortgage for a least a couple of years, and the value then is totally unpredictable. One family partner works for a startup, and the other sticks with a large enterprise company like Intel, HP, Apple, IBM, or Fujitsu. Start networking. The hours are long and unpredictable.

Silicon Valley 227

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Startup Stock Options 227

Berkonomics

APRIL 4, 2024

Then along comes either money or contracts from strategic or financial investors or partners. Compensation’s charter is to approve stock option grants for any employee, no matter how small the grant, and all salary and benefits for at least the CEO if not the next level down, to avoid conflict of interest with the CEO.

Covenant 48

Covenant Software Review Stock Options Vesting 48

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2009

What if the person performs OK, but not great and you need to hire above him? I believe that you should have a “partner&# or 2 in the company. I believe you should treat them as partners. First time entrepreneurs, especially, tend to need more than one other “key” team member/partner to help them be successful.

Founder 251

Founder Cofounder Equity Stock Options 251

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

So hiring more people and being around more people and getting more things done is not actually one of the reasons. Why not get a partner? You may call it employee number one with a really low salary and really generous stock options and as the company grows, you’ll fix their salary. Lots of things change.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

If I’m going to find out that a set of founders lack integrity, don’t behave like partners, take on unacceptable risks that might harm their customers or society, or simply aren’t the kinds of people I want to spend a decade with, I want to know those facts before I start down the path of evaluating that investment. I think David’s wrong.”.

Hosting 69

Hosting Hockey Stick IPO Silicon Valley 69

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. Some people find this elitist?—?I

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Back in 1997, Randy Parker was staring at a blank whiteboard, wondering where hed find the money to hire the employees and consultants he needed to build his new product. "We I advise my clients that you offer stock only after youve searched your heart and soul and cant come up with a way to pay with anything else," says Thomas H.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Ifyour competitors offer employees stock options that might make themrich, while you make it clear you plan to stay private, yourcompetitors will get the best people. The fund managers, who are called"general partners," get about 2% of the fund annually as a managementfee, plus about 20% of the funds gains.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

When I became a managing partner, aside from directing our strategy on where to invest, I also helped recruit board positions and management teams. Two of my most senior hires were top women who were the best for the job. So it’s more about a broad network. You are the first line of defense in a healthy ascent.

Switzerland 264

Switzerland Private Equity Stock Options Equity 264

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Hammer Out the Details Between Partners. If you plan to hire employees, make sure that you have the appropriate documentation. Stock Option documentation. If you’re already running as a partnership or sole proprietor, the company can be converted to an LLC, or a C or S corporation.

LLC 168

LLC Startup Stock Options Cofounder 168

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

I recommend partnering with a VC if possible, as it increases the exposure and quality of turnout for the event. Most of the other companies participating in the hackathon were based in the United States and lacked any H-1B visas , which are necessary in order to hire these folks, so we were the only company to give them substantial offers.

Silicon Valley 121

Silicon Valley Asia Engineer Stock Options 121

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Basing a consultant’s compensation on the incremental revenue they generate is a great example of a deal that is on The Fringe (for other creative approaches to partnering, see Agreements on The Fringe). At the early stages of your company’s life, you cannot rely on disinterested, hired guns to define your company’s key tasks.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 15, 2012

To learn more about how your startup can find, hire and keep the top talent and quality workers it needs to succeed, download this free ReadWriteWeb Report: The Talent Wars: Today’s Toughest Startup Challenge.). Share the Partner Feel With Equity. After all, your new partner will be a key decision maker toward that pivot.

Developer 130

Developer Equity Ruby Cofounder 130